Keeping your toddler entertained at home isn’t easy. Especially during a pandemic!
It’s hard work setting up activities. Only to see that they’ve played with it for less than a minute.
But don’t stress. Because good old fashioned colouring will help!
Say goodbye to messy activities that are hardly played with or take forever to clear up. And hello to an easy, peaceful activity.
Want to know the best bit?
Colouring in helps your child’s learning and development in so many ways. As well as keeping them busy. So it’s a win-win!
Is Colouring Good For Toddlers?
We know that colouring in is a low effort way to keep your kids entertained. But it’s also a powerful activity that will help your little one learn.
It’s therapeutic and relaxing.
Toddlerhood is filled with sensory overload moments – Babysparks
So giving them a quiet time activity is a chance for them to relax and recharge.
Colouring In will help your child concentrate and focus.
It encourages creativity and self-expression.
It improves fine motor skills – when using the right crayons. More on this below!
Colouring in improves toddlers communication skills in a fun and meaningful way. Using simple colouring pages will help them understand the names of everyday things. Like a butterfly, truck or car. And they’ll try to say the words themselves.
Their listening and understanding will improve when you can ask them questions about their picture or comment on what they’re doing.
And last but not least…
It’s an effortless way to spend some quality time together. And you won’t have to worry about cleaning up the mess afterwards!
What Age Should My Child Start Colouring In?
It’s thought that 15-18 months old is the best time to introduce your toddler to colouring in. At this age, they’ll understand that they’re the ones that have made the marks on the paper.
But, every child is different.
There’s no harm in trying earlier if you want to. I introduced crayons and paper to my toddler at 13 months. But it took a while for him to understand that he was the one that had made the marks. Now he’s 18 months old, he understands and enjoys it a whole lot more.
So if you haven’t encouraged your toddler to colour in yet, give it a go.
You can start with paper and crayons. Or we have free colouring pictures that you can print too. Having an outline will give you more to talk about with your toddler. Which will also help their communication skills.
Free Colouring Pages For Toddlers
Finding simple toddler colouring in pictures that you can print is hard. Most images have lots of small details for kids to colour in, which they won’t be able to do.
So I created some instead.
The simple designs and bold outlines mean your toddler has plenty of space to scribble and colour.
They’re great to use on rainy days indoors.
But don’t feel like you need to save them for when the weather’s rubbish. Use them all year round!
Like on cold winter nights in front of the warm, cosy fire.
Under the shade of a tree on long sunny days.
Or keep a small stash in your bag and use them when you’re visiting friends eating out or travelling.
We have colouring sheets of popular, everyday things. Like cars colouring in. Penguins, unicorns, robots and more!
Pictures that will help you teach your little one early learning concepts. Such as shapes, numbers and first words.
And cute outlines and templates to help your toddler celebrate important occasions. Like Christmas. They’ll also calm them down when the excitement all gets a bit too much.
Older kids of preschool and kindergarten age will love the colouring pages too. They’ll be able to add more details themselves. Create cool patterns and get really creative!
A Few Details About Our Colouring Sheets
Every colouring page you download is in a pdf format. This means the lines are clearer (compared to colouring pages in a jpeg format.)
Most of our colouring pages will print in landscape. But there are also options (in some cases) to print in portrait.
Every design is large with a bold, black outline. You can make the images smaller using your printer options. Just change the number of pages per sheet and amount of copies you need.
Colouring Supplies and Resources
Now you know all the amazing benefits colouring has to offer. Let’s talk about supplies, materials and tools.
Because there’s so much choice when it comes to art supplies for toddlers.
Do you choose crayons?
Or go for pens and pencils?
And what about paint and markers?
Even when you’ve decided the type of tools you want them to use. There are still other things you need to think about.
Like the size and shape of the crayon and/or colouring pencil.
Hopefully, this will help you decide.
It’s best to use crayons with younger toddlers. They’ll create less mess and help their fine motor skills. But beware. Not all crayons help little ones strengthen important muscles in their hands.
And using the wrong crayons often leads to extra practise to improve their fine motor skills.
But the good news is that you can skip all this by giving them the best crayons from the start. Ones that are suitable for their age/stage of development.
But I’m Worried My Toddler Will Draw On My Walls
Let’s face it, we’ve all seen pictures of a toddler’s artwork on the walls! And most of us have probably experienced this at least once.
They can wreak havoc in a matter of minutes. Suddenly, your quiet toddler activity isn’t so relaxing anymore!
But there’s a reason why kids love to do this. It’s because they can do it standing up! It’s a lot easier and more fun than sitting down.
Even though they enjoy drawing on the walls, it’s still not behaviour we want to encourage. So here are some things that will help.
Buying your toddler an art easel is the first way to stop them drawing on your walls. It’ll provide them with a special place to colour whilst standing up. And they’ll have lots of space to make big movements.
The second way is to give your toddler washable crayons to use.
Buying colouring in books or printing colouring sheets is another way to stop your little one from drawing on your walls.
There are also magical colouring books (and pages) you can buy with special pencils that only work on the pages of the book. And nowhere else.
Finally, make sure you put away all crayons, colouring pens and pencils when they’re not using them. Ideally, on top of a high shelf, they can’t get to.
If after this, you’re still discovering your toddler’s artwork on the walls, try using a reward chart. Give them a sticker or something small each time they draw or colour on paper etc.
Conclusion
Colouring in is an easy toddler activity that’ll take you seconds to set up. It’ll keep them busy, help their development and calm them down in a flash.
On top of that, it’ll allow you to finally finish a coffee…when it’s still warm! Yay!
And you never know, it may turn out to be a fun hobby when they’re older!
Don’t forget to check out our A-Z list of toddler colouring pages. We’re always adding more!
You can also use the search bar at the top of the page.
Or check out our Pinterest board.
